I am the essence of overconfidence! I am speculation, adventure; the spirit of pursuit; the stag howling for its winsome yet anonymous mate. I am the love call of evolution; the perfume and color of the flowers as they offer their pollen to the gentle buzz of the bees.
I am sex itself, gentlemen. I am life. I am appetite!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

On Superb Songs

" Reethgowlai could be compared to a steroid shot to Ben Johnson!... Its raga lakshanam is so unique that it gets imprinted in our mind easily. Beginners in carnatic music identify Reethigowlai rather facilely and this gives great encouragement to venture into learning other ragas. The jubilance of identifying a raga by ourselves initially is unparalled and even a triple 800 score in GRE Pre-Test wouldn't make you that happy! Oh man, what a joy! ..... Reethigowlai is the janyam of Karaharapriya (22nd melam). It is a vakra ragam and hence with a convoluted arohanam and avarohanam. Sa Ga2 Ri2 Ga2 Ma1 Ni2 Da2 Ma1 Ni2 Ni2 Sa; Sa Ni2 Da2 Ma1 Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ma1 Ga2 Ri2 Sa"

Here is how various people have interpreted this raaga.

Subramanyapuram: A Surprise

As a side note. It is amazing how the Balu mahendra style of picturization still works. The heroine isn't beautiful at all. She is like a Suvalakshmi/Deivayani category heroine, who are surprisingly favored by loser thamizh men searching for homely women. But you have to give her one thing. She's got a million expressions. Over half of them generated by her eye. And most of it has been beautifully captured.

Ilayaraja: Swathi Muthyam & M. Balamurali Krishna

Dr. lakshminarayanan had this to say about this superb song.

"It is a very easily identifiable, very classical janya ragam that was relished by composers like Thyagaraja. But, none in the cinema arena seems to have used it in the pre-Ilaiyaraaja period. In mid seventies, here comes the uneducated music director from Madhurai jilla....! He tunes a couple of "tappanguthu" that marks his initial success! Within 2 to 3 years after his debut, he calls one of the most memorable geniuses of Carnatic music, Shri Balamurali Krishna to sing one cinema song for him. "Alright thambi" says Balamurali, and goes to the recording theatre.....

Was Balamurali surprised initially when Ilaiyaraaja played the tune for him in his harmonium? If I were him, I would have been! First of all, out of the blue, why Reethigowlai? Why not the hackneyed Hindholam or Mohanam? This absolutely classical raga selection shows his desire to venture into pure, traditional ragas! It is like A.R.Rahman springing a surprise by tuning purely classical Yadhukula Kamboji interludes in kuluvaliyae (muthu)!"

Ilayaraja creates Magic

A Real Genius Interprets it: MLV

A.R.Rahman: Yes. It is a Beautiful Beast.

Features two of my favorite singers. SPB on top of Reethigowlai is like Popeye falling into a vat of spinach.

26 comments:

Don't know if James Vasanthan intended to copy one of IR's best compositions... but if u listen to them closely you can mix those 2 song's saranam and pallavi to create some real magic.... looking for the video of that Song..

brilliant only pa! I am not that knowledgable but this is a great collection and analysis. And I understand that jubiliation one gets in identifying a raaga! Yenna, ennala mudiyadhu. :| This is good to read because, few weeks back, after I learned kangal is reethi gowlai, I read a blog that said it is a copy of azhagana rakshasiye. I went WTF, therinjudu dhan pesarangala??!

please note gradwolf's comment. especially the last 2 sentences. I don't know how you can say what you said in _this_ blog post of all blog posts. Hakkie is very kind to you, are you his friend or something.

Hawkeye,This post is an interesting post on reethi gowla. I guess you have interest in carnatic music.I hope you would have heard "Theendai Mei Theendai" from En Swasa Kaatre. Can you tell me what raaga is it based upon?

Hawkeye,I guessed that you would actually say it as Sree-ragam. Infact most of them would say as Sriragam. Its not so :)) Theendai mei theendai is actually based out of Manirangu ragam which is a very rare ragam that is used in cine music industry.

Only IR has used it once before ARR. If you can remember the song Suga Raahame from Kanni Rasi movie you can interpret how theendai and this song have lots of similarities. Both are based out of Manirangu ragam.

But the most mesmerising raga is Manoranjani. It is such a beautiful Janya Raaga that has 3 different forms of which two are derived from 5th Melakartha raaga Manavathi and the rest from the 22nd Melakartha raaga Karaharapriya. This is the one of the most appealing ragas to mind. That is why it is called as Manoranjani meaning pleasing to mind.

I'd mentioned on a comment in another blog on the similarity between Chinna Kannan Azhaikkiraan and Kangal Irandaal especially the similar swarams in the pallavi (SGRGM).

There is a nice composition in a mallu movie called Sindoorarekha (music director Sharath who can now be seen officiating Ragamalika and an avid IR fan). If you listen carefully the swaras of "chinnakannan" are embedded in the swaras sung at the end of the charanam (SGRGMNNS) - In fact that was how I discovered the swarasthanam of that IR's first Reeti Gowla composition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwYcKZh_B0

And since you posted MLV's Reeti Gowla, here is a link with GNB's Badali Kadeera - Pretty poor recording but GNB is well.. GNB so its worth a listen.

fell in luv w/ the 'kangal irandaal..' song, thnx fr tt! and though its similar to 'chinna kannan..', i prfr the formr, i guess coz of its lesser carnatic angle. unga alavukku carnatic music le eedupaadu illai but i do enjoy a gd tune.

sarang you are right. i did miss it while posting it but realized it later. I remembered it as MBK singing. The author i linked also rememers it that way. I was unable to find another version of this song (or Raman kathai kelu thamizh version) online.

So I'm not sure if all of this is my imagination or if MBK did really sing for IR or was it for a differet song. sometimes i hate my memory.

Thanks for the very interesting background behind the song. Great blog!!

Since you certainly know a lot more about the raagas, can you let me know if some of the songs in another Illayaraja vintage movie - Kadhal Oviyam (Radha and some unknown actor) - were based on specific raagas please?

SPB just carries you away with two #s - Poovil vandu and Amma azhaga. The more popular song in that movie is 'Sangeetha jathi mullai' but I preferred the first two.

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Hawkeye somehow managed to get educated, switch careers from engineering to business and secure gainful employment. He got employed because he failed to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming a house husband. He does not believe in luck but thinks he is the most unluckiest man in the world (read disclaimer). Such self-contradictory thoughts continue to separate the author from reality. He claims he can 'do humor' because he cant be taken seriously.Hawkeye is a nomad, a wanderer who has studied in more schools and lived in more places than he cares to remember. He has travelled to many many states within India and has seen almost all the important vacation spots. He constantly tries to bring in "I went to switzerland for my honeymoon" in unrelated conversations (like this one) and hopes to visit all the other countries in Europe. Loves to visit and learn historical information about Indian Temples. He is ramping up on the ancient metaphysical philosphy called Vishishta-Advaitha ( Qualified Non-Dualism) and loves to talk about it with anybody who claims to be an expert.